


Vagrant

by muttthecowcat22



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Arranged Marriage, Emperor Yuuri Katsuki, King Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Modern Royalty, YOI Royalty Week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-07 14:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14672886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muttthecowcat22/pseuds/muttthecowcat22
Summary: In order to prevent his country from being completely absorbed by the empire, King Victor of Koshtantau arranges a marriage between himself and the enigmatic new emperor.  He leaves his home for an unknown man and an unknown country, prepared to never return.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a series of drabbles for yoi Royalty Week!
> 
> Largely unedited :)

It had been his decision.  
  
It had.  
  
Victor was beginning to doubt that he had made the right one.  
  
He surveyed the ballroom, the polished dark floors and the people sparkling over them, the skyline twinkling through the panoramic windows across the room.  They were all so . . new, young, glamorous, clean.  Unlike home.  
  
He gripped the flute of champagne that he had yet to taste more tightly.  
  
He thought it would have been . . . tolerable at least.  That it would have been worth the risk to save what was left of his country.  Yet, here he was, in this other country, with these other people, most of whom he could not communicate with, and only Chris to support him.     
  
And Victor, more acutely than ever, felt reduced to a pawn.  
  
By the same time the next day, he would be married.  And his country with him.  And he hadn’t even seen the other man.  
  
An arranged marriage.  It had been the best option.  It had been his decision.  
  
Yakov had begged — well, strongly advised —  him not to go, not to leave their small, failing country for the smallest chance of gaining some control over their own fate.  
  
Victor wondered if he would ever be able to see his home again.  
  
“Vitya,” Chris called as he wondered off the dance floor with another man, “drink your champagne.  And come dance with me, or Phichit, or both of us.”  
  
Chris’s new friend, Phichit supposedly, bowed in greeting.  “So you’re Victor, huh?” he asked in Koshan.    
  
“Yes,” Victor replied without much thought, surprised at hearing his own language.  
  
“Can I get a selfie?”  
  
And, before Victor could reply, Phichit had already slung one arm around his shoulders.  Click.  
  
“That’s perfect!  Maybe this will convince Yuuri,” Phichit said with his eyes glued to his phone.  
  
Yuuri.  
  
Yuuri Katsuki.  
  
Emperor Yuuri Katsuki.  
  
Victor grabbed Phichit’s arm like his life depended on it, startling the other man from his phone-trance.  “Do you know the emperor?”  
  
“Of course, we’re best friends.  He didn’t tell you?”  
  
Victor almost asked how the emperor would have told him anything, but he stopped himself.  What was going on?  “No.  He didn’t.” Victor ran a hand through his hair.  “Will he be attending tonight?”    
  
Chris glanced at Victor over Phichit’s shoulder.  
  
“He was supposed to be here already, but, you know, he doesn’t really enjoy parties much.”  
  
Well at least they had something in common, it seemed.  
  
“But, I’m sure he’ll be here soon now.” Phichit continued, winking at Victor.  “He actually loves to dance, but don’t tell him I told you.”  He reached for Victor’s free hand.  “Why don’t you dance with me until he arrives?”  
  
Despite his suspicious lack of knowledge about Victor’s situation, Phichit’s smile seemed genuine.  Victor knocked back his champagne flute and followed him out to the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a comment and/or kudo! They're always so encouraging. 
> 
> Find me on tumblr [@muttthecowcatridesagain](https://muttthecowcatridesagain.tumblr.com/).


	2. Chapter 2

Phichit proved to be quite the talented dancer.  Victor found himself more relaxed after their dance than he had been at any point since arriving in Hotakadake.   But the music didn’t last nearly long enough.    
  
Victor reclaimed his place at a table along the edge of one of the gilded walls.  He wondered when the emperor would arrive.  The party-goers continued to dance, Phichit and Chris among them.  Occasionally, Victor’s eyes caught on the woman standing discreetly to the side of the only exit from the room.  
  
He couldn’t tell from so far away, but he knew that she was watching him, had been watching him the entire night.  
  
Another hour passed, still with no sign of the emperor.  Victor could see the rest of his life stretching out before him, seemingly glamorous, but confined, uninformed.  Would he know how his country fared?  Would he ever know if Yura recovered?  If Yakov forgave him?  
  
It didn’t seem like it.  
  
“Hey.”  Victor felt a weight on his shoulder.  Chris pulled out a seat next to him. “We can still leave.  If you don’t feel good about this —  and it doesn’t look like you do.”  
  
“You know I can’t.  They’re watching me.”  
  
Chris eyes wandered towards the door.  “Look, despite being extremely formal and stingy with information, everyone has treated us with respect since we arrived.  Just go tell her that you’ve changed your mind.  We can work out the details in the morning.  She can’t make you stay, but she is our only direct contact with the imperial family — other than Phichit, I guess.”  
  
“But if I leave, then what will we do?”  
  
Chris stared at the empty glass on the table.  “I don’t know, but why stay if this won’t benefit us anyway?”  
  
Chris had a point.  “Ok.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.  It had been clear for several days, really.  He just needed to admit it to himself, that even this had fallen through.  “Ok.  It’s just — this was my last real piece to play, Chris.  It was the one last real hope.  I don’t know what’s going to happen to us now.”  
  
“Vitya.” Chris grabbed his arm then his hand.  “We’ll figure something out together.  You might be the last monarch of Koshtantau, but you are the most trusted.  You’ve put your own future on the line for the rest of us.  No one will forget that, and no one will blame you for walking away from a bad deal.”  
  
“Ok.” Victor repeated, calling up the little resolve that he still possessed.  He stood.  “I’m going to talk with her.  Watch me, and follow us if you see us leave.”  
  
Victor began to cross the room towards the exit, forcing his way through part of the dance floor, weaving through swaying couples.  He had nearly reached the other side, close to the windows.  
  
When something hit him.  
  
Square in the chest and hard.  
  
He stumbled backwards.   
  
Was that laughter?  
  
“Victor!”  
  
Victor looked up from his twisted feet into the wide, dark eyes of the most gorgeous man he had ever seen.  A few strands of dark hair framed the man’s flushed cheeks.  A midnight blue suit framed his shoulders and form.  His tie seemed to be missing, and a few too many buttons of his shirt were undone.    
  
He was smiling.  
  
“Victor, it’s you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a comment and/or kudo! They're always so encouraging.
> 
> Find me on tumblr [@muttthecowcatridesagain](https://muttthecowcatridesagain.tumblr.com/).


	3. Chapter 3

Then Victor was dancing.  
  
Not swaying.  
  
Really dancing.  The man in the blue suit pressed close against him as they spun and dipped across the room, one song blurring into another.  Another glass of champagne or two.   
  
He was beautiful.  Unreal.  
  
He whispered words in the language that Victor had yet to learn.  
  
His hands burned where they touched Victor’s.  His hair brushed under Victor’s chin as he leaned in closer.  His lips pressed against Victor’s neck.  
  
Victor shuddered, nearly halting their dance.  He hadn’t felt — anything in so long.  
  
He knew it was probably a bad idea.  He could feel the eyes of the woman at the door on him.  
  
He was supposed to be talking to her about something, wasn’t he?    
  
He’d deal with - with everything in the morning.  
  
The man was pulling him towards a door near the windows, out to a balcony overhanging the lights of the city, pressing him against a smooth stone wall, lips finding his pulse point again.  
  
He murmured Victor’s name between breaths.  
  
Victor ran his fingers through soft, dark hair and tilted the man’s head to capture his lips.  
  
His mouth was hot, his tongue smooth and relentless.  His breath tasted of champagne.    
  
His fingers fumbled at the fastenings of Victor’s traditional magenta double breasted jacket, only half succeeding at loosening it enough to run his hands under the hemline.  
  
Victor realized that someone, anyone could be watching them, the night before his supposed wedding, and he couldn’t make himself care.  
  
His own fingers twisted in the loose fabric of the man’s shirt, slipping beneath the blue jacket and around his waist.  
  
He didn’t know how long they stayed there, as he was pressed further into the wall, but eventually the man pulled away, seemingly out of breath.    
  
Victor panted as the night breeze swept cold into his open collar.  The man shivered, his form dark before the sparkling lights of the city.  
  
Victor reached for his jacket on the ground and slung it over the man’s shoulders.   
  
“Thank you,” the man said, his chest continuing to rise and fall.  He stood a breath away for a few seconds before leaning into Victor again.   
  
Victor prepared himself for a new onslaught, but it never came.   
  
The man rested his forehead on Victor’s shoulder, his breathing turning erratic.  He was crying?  
  
“A-are you okay?” Victor asked, tentatively rubbing the man’s back.  What was going on?  Victor hoped the man had merely gotten into a bit more champagne than himself.  His shoulders shook beneath Victor’s palms.  
  
“N-no . . .”  Then he started crying harder.  “I-I’m getting married.”  
  
Victor almost chuckled.  “Ah, congratulations.  Actually, so am I — tomorrow.”  His hold on the man’s back tightened slightly.  
  
“No, you don’t understand.  He’ll never love me.”  And he cried harder.  
  
“Oh no, darling, but you’re so lovely.  He has to love you.”  Victor tried rubbing his back again.  It didn’t seem to be working.  
  
“No. No he won’t.”  
  
“Do you mind if I ask why?”  
  
“He just, he can’t.”  He leaned all of his weight into Victor.  
  
The extra weight was a little too much for Victor to handle at that moment.  He supported the man under the arms as he maneuvered them both until they were sitting on the ground, the man nearly in his lap.  
  
“Do you love him?” Victor asked.  
  
“I want to.  Do you love who you marry?”  His accent was think around some words more than others.  Victor was surprised he could speak Koshan at all after all the champagne.  
  
“I don’t even know him yet.”  
  
“Do you want to?”  
  
Victor looked down at where the man’s head rested heavy on his shoulder.  Most of his hair had fallen loose.  He touched one of Victor’s hands, playing with his fingers.  
  
“I think I just want to go home.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
Another cold breeze swept around them.  The man huddled against Victor’s side.  
  
“I think we should go.”  He made to stand, but the man grasped his arm.  
  
“No, please don’t. Go. Please.”  
  
The desperate note in his voice startled Victor, much more than the earlier drunken crying.  Victor sank back down, rubbing the man’s back.   
  
“It’s ok.  We just need to go inside.  It’s too cold out here.  Ok?”  
  
“I just. Don’t. — Come home with me. Don’t leave.”  
  
Victor stared at him for a moment.  “I’m getting married tomorrow.”  
  
“I’m get married too!”  
  
“But for me, it’s tomorrow.”  
  
“Yes.”  The man looked up from under his eyebrows, determined.  
  
“Ok.” Victor rubbed a hand through his hair.  What was he doing?  “Ok. Let me go talk to my friend.  Then I’ll come with you.”  He attempted to stand again.  
  
“Wait.”  The man grabbed his right hand and slipped something onto one of his fingers.  “Ok, now if you get lost, I find you.”  
  
Victor glanced down at his hand.  A ring.  Once he stepped inside again, he could see that it was golden, embedded with dark sapphires.  He rubbed his thumb over it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a comment and/or kudo! They're always so encouraging.
> 
> Find me on tumblr [@muttthecowcatridesagain](https://muttthecowcatridesagain.tumblr.com/).


	4. Chapter 4

“Any other night I would literally throw you at him.”  Chris and Victor swayed on the dancefloor near the windows, hopefully out of sight of the guard at the door without straying too far away from the balcony.  “But tonight?  No — no way.”  
  
Victor looked away from his vantage point of the windows over Chris’s shoulder.  His vision swam for a moment.  “He’s waiting—”  
  
“No.  Vitya, you’re getting married to the emperor tomorrow, or maybe not. But, it doesn’t matter tonight.  There’s a million guards watching us.”  
  
“He seemed upset.”  
  
“All the more reason to send him home with whoever he came here with.  Let’s just go back to our rooms for the night.”  
  
Victor watched the lights blur as they spun.  Chris was probably right.  Again.  
  
He knew he was beyond making any sound decisions for the night anyway.  
  
“Let me just tell him goodbye.”  
  
  
Chris stood near the door as Victor slipped out onto the balcony once more.  
  
The man was no longer there.  
  
Just the cold wind and distant sounds of the city.  
  
“Are you here?” Victor called, his voice rising in panic.  
  
He gripped the tall, metal railing along the balcony.  Surely the man couldn’t have —  
  
Victor leaped inside the door and into Chris.  “He’s not there.”  He gripped Chris by both arms.  “He’s not there, he’s not—”  
  
“Vitya.  Vitya, calm down.”  Chris’s hands supported him as he shook from the cold.    
  
Once Victor steadied himself, Chris stepped outside the door to investigate.  
  
“I don’t see how he could have scaled the railing.  He probably just slipped inside again while we weren’t looking.”  
  
Victor rubbed his hands over his arms, the ring snagging on the thick fabric of his jacket.  “I’d feel better if we could ask someone who’s staying here to look out for him.  Where’s Phichit?”  
  
Chris glanced around the room.  “I . . . don’t know, but I have his number so . .”   
  
Victor surveyed the room as well as they waited on Phichit to respond.  They had caused quite a scene, letting so much cold air into the room from the balcony.  He couldn’t, however, spot the woman at the door.  
  
“He says he knows the guy and that he’s fine.” Were Chris’s next words.  “Now, let’s go, while she’s gone.”  
  
The ring felt heavy on Victor’s hand as they slipped out of the large gilded doors, no guard in sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short connecting scene!
> 
> As always, kudos and comments greatly appreciated <3


	5. Chapter 5

The lights of Hasetsu City stretched out from the lift as they ascended to their rooms on the top floor, probably the most spacious rooms in the the tower.  It didn’t matter, though.  Victor felt as if they had been held captive in the tower since arriving earlier that week, escorted by a guard if they so much as ventured into the hallway.  
  
“We’re concerned for your safety, Your Grace,” had been their excuse every time.    
  
Makkachin greeted them at the door, and Victor flopped onto his bed with her once Chris retired to his own rooms.  
  
He held up his hand and examined the blue gems glittering on the ring.  Despite Phichit’s reply, he still worried about the man.  There one second, and gone the next.  And he had seemed so adamant about staying with Victor . . .  
  
Victor should probably return the ring somehow.    
  
He didn’t move to take it off.  
  
The sapphires encircled the ring completely, cut into perfect squares.  
  
He could still feel the ghost of the man’s lips and his smooth dark hair between his fingers.  He focused on the residual warmth of the man’s hand in his own as he drifted off beside Makkachin.  
  
Not an hour later, loud knocks rang out from the main door to the suite, startling Victor from his room.  
  
It was the guard from earlier.  
  
“You left the reception early,” she said by way of greeting.  
  
“Lady Minako, did you really expect us to stay?” Chris answered from the door of his room.    
  
“You were supposed to warn me before you left.”  She looked between Chris and Victor, her eyes as unreadable as when they had first met her.  “You’ve caused me unnecessary trouble.  But, now that I’ve found you, I should warn you that tomorrow you are expected to follow the schedule.  One of our designers will be here early in the morning to help you dress.  Now, I will be retiring for the night, as always, call if you need me.”  
  
She turned to go.    
  
“Wait,” Victor said, steeling his nerves, “I’ve changed my mind.”  
  
She turned towards him slowly, her eyes narrowed.  “What do you mean?”  
  
“I’m not going through with the wedding.  I, obviously, need to speak to the imperial family about this, but I thought I would warn you tonight.”  
  
“You can’t just change your mind the day before.”  
  
Victor crossed his arms, calling up his full height.  “I don’t see why not.  I have yet to sign anything tangible.  There have been no preparations for the wedding other than our attire, since it was supposed to be small and private.  And, I have yet to meet anyone from the imperial family in person, including the emperor himself.”  It really was ridiculous, to say the least.  Or suspicious, to say more.  
  
Minako’s face remained blank, her eyes sparking, however briefly.  “And is this the only reason you have to ending the agreement?”  
  
“I shouldn’t have to explain myself to you.”  Victor thought he could see her posture tense.  “But, no.  Nothing has been as I expected.  I no longer feel comfortable with the arrangement and see no way that it will benefit my people.”  
  
“So, you expected to change the fate of Koshtantau.  That was never part of the proposal.”  
  
“I expected to be able to benefit my people in some way, yes.”  Victor let the words drop with finality and hoped that she did not push more.  Minako was their only contact to the imperial family, their only true form of communication.  If she so deemed, Victor ran the chance of returning home without speaking to any of family at all.  When all he needed was one chance to show them why his country and his people mattered.  
  
“I think you misunderstand us, Your Grace.  The emperor and his family wish you well and are looking forward to the wedding.  However, the young emperor’s recent ascension has been . . . troubled.  They merely wanted to ensure his and your safety this week.  I implore you to refrain from any definite decisions before speaking with them tomorrow.”  
  
“Very well.  But this has not been a rash decision on my part.”  He waved her towards the door, just as two more knocks issued from the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update! This will be the final installment for this week. It’s gotten much longer than I anticipated, but I do plan on continuing it. I’ll be on “hiatus” for another week, then I will begin to work on it again!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a comment or a kudo! <3


End file.
